The Reality of the Situation
by chelz22
Summary: No one would have predicted what was in store for the Pike family. Complete.
1. Prologue

A/N: The Pikes, and all other characters appearing within this story are the property of Ann M. Martin and Scholastic Inc.

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It had never been a secret that Diana and John Pike were crazy about each other. This was evident from the very start of their marriage- you could see it in their eyes, and in the way that one couldn't pass the other without making some kind of contact. At times, the air between them felt electric. Later on, this became evident through the eight children that they eventually brought into the world. Many multitudes of combinations of their father and mother, Mallory, Adam, Byron, Jordan, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire were what Dee and John prided themselves on.

As their children grew up, Dee and John poured their love into the family they had created. Money was sometimes tight, but there was generally enough to go around. They got by, anyway, and even managed an annual vacation to Sea City, New Jersey. Friends and neighbors remarked that they had never seen a family so close. Sure, the kids got into tiffs every once in awhile, but the familial bond was clear whenever they had to encounter a tough situation. Throughout everything, the Pikes stuck together.

As is the case with many families, things became more complicated as the children grew older. Mallory was now seventeen, and Claire eleven. This made for seven teenagers and one very precocious preteen in one small house. Dee had thought that having eight children under age seven had been a challenge; clearly, she had not thought ahead to the teenage years as she should have.

Between transporting Mallory back and forth to Riverbend Hall, a boarding school that she attended in New Hampshire, the triplet's football, hockey, and soccer games, Vanessa's yearbook and newspaper meetings, Nicky's tutoring sessions, Margo's gifted and talented workshops, and Claire's therapy appointments, the Pike family existed in some sort of whirlwind. Dee lived by a master day planner that listed all the children's activities. John went to work all day and into the night to avoid the constant chaos of the family, and wore a look of mild bewilderment whenever he was home for a significant amount of time. No one noticed this, just as they didn't notice that Dee and John failed to exchange much more than pleasantries. There was simply too much going on.

The kids didn't notice because they were too busy either clamoring for, or being annoyed with their parents attention. They cared that they got a ride to the movies, but not if their parents occasionally saw one together. Not that this was anything other than what was to be expected; teenagers are universally self absorbed.

What was unexpected was that Dee realized one afternoon while making dinner that she couldn't remember a conversation between herself and John that had taken place recently that hadn't revolved, in some way, around one of the children and their activities. It further shocked Dee when she realized that she really didn't care. Once her soul mate, John was now more something like a business partner. They were polite to one another, and worked well together on the project that they had created: their family. But when the day was done, they each went their separate way. Except, in this case, their separate paths had the same final destination. They were residing in the same house, but they weren't really living _together_; not in the sense that had made up the history of their marriage.

Once having realized the separation that had slowly brought Dee and John apart, the two of them sat down together and had their first conversation about their relationship in approximately six years.

They didn't spend much time talking about the children. They were present in the conversation, of course, as ones children are always on the mind of a parent. For the most part, Dee and John talked about themselves and their relationship, past, present, and future.

They rehashed their initial thoughts on each other, their courtship, and the early days of their marriage. They talked about what it had been like to exist solely for the other, which had been such a short period of time, but one that they both held close to their hearts. They talked about the family they had created, and the love that they had for the family, despite the fact that it was rare for all ten of them to be gathered in the same room all at once. They both gave their thoughts as to what the future held for each of their children. Lastly, they talked about the feelings that they had for one another, and how they had developed, changed, and then dissipated over the course of their marriage. They talked about their future, and what roles they would play in the lives of each other in various situations.

Together they came to a realization that they decided to pass down to their children: The circumstances of the future can in no way change what has already become history.

The love between Dee and John Pike had never been a secret, and what became the lack of that love had never really been a secret either. It was just that everyone, themselves included, had been too caught up in whatever else they had going on to notice it. However, just because it had not been a secret didn't mean that anyone would want to acknowledge it, or deal with its repercussions.

Dee and John made a decision together that they felt was inevitable, and the best choice for everyone involved. Yet even though this truly was the best thing for them to do, they were both overcome with apprehension when they gathered all eight of their children into the rec room to share their news and decision. The morning that the Pike children were informed of their parents impending separation and divorce, Dee and John were addressed with nothing but silence and stony faces. Suddenly, the lack of affection between Dee and John seemed glaringly obvious. Even the children noticed.


	2. Mallory

Mallory told herself that she didn't really care. After all, she hadn't really lived at home since she was eleven. Her real home was at Riverbend, with the family that she had created there. She viewed Stoneybrook and the Pike household as temporary lodging between semesters; it was a nice place to rest, well, as much as one could rest in a household of ten, but it wasn't exactly somewhere she desired to spend a large portion of time. Besides, she was a senior in high school now. If she was lucky, she would be spending next year studying creative writing at New York University. What difference did it make if there was one household to return to in Stoneybrook, or two?

Okay, so maybe she was kidding herself just a little bit. As much as she loved her life in New Hampshire, she always looked forward to returning to Stoneybrook and the crazy mess that was her family. Sure after awhile they drove her crazy, but that was part of the reason that she went to Riverbend in the first place. The way she saw it, she had the best of both worlds. Except that everything was about to change, and she wasn't sure if there was anything that she could to do stop it.

She wondered how and when exactly her parents had fallen out of love; if it was gradual realization or a sudden change of heart. Things never really seemed that different. Not different enough to account for their recent announcement, anyway.

This is what she had to deal with as a result of her distancing herself from her family and their life while still basically a child. She was not privy to the inner workings of the Pike family system, residing more on the periphery than in the core. Because of this, things often happened that came as a surprise to her, but never really seemed to bother any of her siblings. She wondered if this could perhaps be happening in this situation. However, if the silence that had taken over the house and her siblings was any indication, this was as much news to them as it was to her. Knowing that her siblings had never really noticed their parents lack of affection comforted Mallory; maybe there wasn't anything that she could have done to stop it. Maybe she shouldn't blame herself for leaving all those years ago, and never really coming back as a full functioning member of the family.

She wondered how her siblings were taking the news. She still shared a room with Vanessa, who was at this moment writing furiously into her journal, her eyes steady and her mouth clamped shut. Mallory wanted to talk to her, really talk, but some how it just didn't feel right. It sort of hurt her that Vanessa, whom she had once been so close to, would rather confide in a battered notebook than her, but she really had no one to blame but herself. When Mallory had initially went off to school, Vanessa would bother her incessantly for details of her life away from home. Totally content with her new life, and feeling beyond her family, Mallory had refused, rarely speaking of her life at school. Eventually, Vanessa had stopped asking.

She wasn't really that much closer to any of her other siblings. Which really was a shame: one would think that a person could find an ally in a family of ten. She got along with them fine, but not being present in each others daily lives had had an impact on their sibling relationships. They were more like acquaintances, really. It was fun to spend time together every now and then, but you wouldn't go to them if something was wrong.

This was a significant change from her previous life, as Mallory sometimes thought of her life pre-Riverbend. She had been a second mother to her siblings, and had been who they had come to with their problems. Maybe if she had stayed that person, that sister, that daughter, she could have somehow saved their family from what was yet to come. Or maybe she would have been an innocent and shocked bystander, just like her siblings. It was rather futile to think of what might have been, just as it was futile to think of what could be. Mallory knew her parents well, and when they made a decision, they stuck to it. Perhaps that was part of what made this situation so hard to bear. It was nothing, if not absolute.

Mallory spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening thinking to herself in circles. She finally concluded that this wouldn't be such a bad thing. With college just around the corner, it wasn't as if she would have to deal with the custody arrangements and the dual households that her siblings would encounter. In fact, she could very easily return to Riverbend from her weekend visit and pretend that none of this had ever happen, that her family was everything that she had always known it to be. She didn't really talk much about her family to her friends at school anyway; she always received weird looks when she mentioned that she had seven siblings. She laughed silently to herself. Maybe a divorce would in some way make her family more normal. It didn't seem like anyone's parents were together anymore.

Mallory looked at the framed picture of her whole family that she kept on her nightstand. It had been taken four years ago, though they had previously had an updated shot taken yearly. Maybe this should have been her first clue. Hugging the frame to her chest, she wiped away a tear that had fallen. Somewhere deep inside, this hurt more than she could now, and perhaps ever, let herself realize. She had never thought that the family she came back to would be any different than the one she had left.


	3. Adam

Adam Pike was having a hard time dealing with the bombshell his parents had just dropped. How was it even possible that they were getting a divorce? That was for people with problems, and there didn't seem to be anything going on between his parents. They acted the same way they had always acted, as well as he could remember anyway. Did they just wake up one day and think that it would be a good idea to screw up the lives of their kids? Maybe that's not what happened, but that was how it seemed, and what it felt like to Adam.

His parents had never really seemed to have any problems. Hell, there were eight Pike children, which was pretty much a good indicator of a solid relationship, in his mind at least. Even as the parents of many of his good friends had split up over the years, the thought of his parents doing the same thing have never really crossed his mind. They just weren't like that, you know? Their family was weird, it was big, but it was stable. At least, until now, he thought.

Even though he definitely hadn't been expecting his parents to pull this type of crap, it was cool, he could deal with it. He kind of worried about some of his brothers and sisters though. Claire was already a little messed up, to say the least. His mom drove her to Stamford twice a week to meet with some shrink who helped her work through her feelings, whatever that meant. Her feelings on what, he didn't really know. It was one of the things that no one talked about. Just like, apparently, no one talked about the fact that his parents didn't love each other anymore. He wondered if any of his siblings could have predicted this any better than he could have.

Adam wondered if there was any specific reason that had sparked this decision in his parents. Maybe the stress of eight kids had finally gotten to be too much for them to deal with. He couldn't really blame them for that at least. None of the kids called for that much attention, but they definitely all had their own things going on. Over the years, he had become accustomed to the enormity of his family; it was all he had ever known. But he was reminded of it when he saw the looks that people sometimes gave them on the street, or in a restaurant. Collectively, they were a lot to deal with.

In a way, he almost felt a little for his parents. It's not like he had ever been able to make a relationship last. He had dated Haley Braddock, Sara Hill, and Becca Ramsey respectively, and none of the relationships, if you could call them that, had lasted for more than a month. He knew that it was hard work for a couple to stay together, but at the same time, he felt that breaking up was for high school. Adults, parents especially, were supposed to be mature enough to keep it together. He wasn't old fashioned or anything, but didn't marriage vows mean anything anymore?

He was so pissed at his parents for doing this, without even giving anyone a clue of what was to come. You don't just announce a divorce in the morning, and expect everyone to be understanding about it. He could feel this weird force of anger building up inside of him, and he knew he had to release it somehow. He wanted to kick the shit out of someone, preferably, his dad.

Instead, he settled for the option that he figured what get him in the least bit of trouble. He went out to the backyard, picked up a baseball bat, and started single handedly demolishing what was left of the fort that he had made with his brothers forever ago. He figured it was kind of symbolic, or whatever, of what was going on with his parents. He aggressively said good bye to his childhood as he broke through what had been their makeshift wall. On the other side of the fence, he saw Stacey McGill give him a weird look, but she didn't say anything to him. She was probably used to the random activity that often took place in the Pike yard by now. Bitch.

The fort now basically in shambles, he put down the bat and sat on the ground in the shade of the oak tree that took up half their backyard. His feelings of anger and aggression had went down, but he was instead left with what he could only describe as feelings of emptiness. If he had had a choice, he would have chosen the anger he had previously felt. But he couldn't reassemble the fort any more than his parents could take back their announcement. The finality of their decision represented by the destruction of the fort somehow made this whole situation so much more real to him. Damn, why did this have to happen?

He wondered what they were going to do with him and his brothers and sisters. All of the kids had been so shocked that his parents hadn't even begun to let them in on what would be the logistics of the situation. Like they needed anything else to deal with. This alone could effectively screw them up for years to come. Add joint custody to it, and you've got a whole family of unstable freaks. Things had certainly changed for the Pike family.

Adam really was at a loss. He couldn't even imagine what the next few weeks and months had in store for his family. He didn't want to think about it at all. It hurt too much.


	4. Byron

Byron had always been the sensitive one. He was the oldest of the triplets by about three minutes, and he had always felt that, as the oldest brother, he should be protective of his siblings and family. However, with the recent events, it looked like he hadn't really done that great of a job. As of the very second his parents broke the news to him and his siblings, the family that he had always known effectively didn't exist anymore. He wasn't really sure if this had even sunk in yet. Whenever he thought about it, he just felt blank.

Actually, take that back. He didn't feel blank, he felt sorrowful. He didn't want to think that his parents had been living together unhappily for any period of time. Because they deserved more than that. He knew that raising eight kids was anything but an easy task, and his parents had truly done everything that they could for them. Which may have included falling out of love with each other.

Even though he was really concerned with what was going on with his parents, this was a situation that they had created. He was more concerned with how his siblings were reacting to this announcement. Adam was outside pounding the hell out of something- that was how he handled problems, anyway. Jordan was playing video games, looking unfazed by the situation on hand. Sometimes Byron couldn't even believe that they were related, much less that they were genetically identical. Jordan just didn't seem to care about anything concerning their family, and he hadn't for years. Nicky was sitting on his bed, occasionally looking around the room. Byron knew that he was trying to size up his brothers reactions, and deciding what his own should be based on that. Byron shook his head; no matter how old Nicky got, he would always be the little eight year old trying to be just like his older brothers.

Byron had always been able to quickly gauge the reactions of his brothers; this came from years of the four boys sharing the same room. Though this had been the source of much conflict many times over the course of their childhood, Byron was happy with the arrangement. He wasn't nearly as close with any of his sisters. He was the most concerned with Margo. All she ever did was work on her homework, to the point where she almost wasn't part of their family, or even the world. Needless to say, she didn't handle change well, and at the moment was very likely retreating into her textbooks. He made a mental note to go check on her at some point tonight, and try to take her away from her school work.

When he wasn't analyzing the past few years in the life of his family, his thoughts drifted towards the future. He had always imagined that when all of the kids eventually moved out of this house, his parents would enjoy the quietness, and live together for the rest of their lives, thankful for newfound peacefulness of the house, which would only be broken by visits from one their undoubtedly many grandchildren. Now he just saw each of his parents residing in separate households, each of them alone. He couldn't even describe how much this saddened him.

He wondered what kind of custody arrangement they would have. Would both of his parents remain in Stoneybrook? Jeff Schafer's mom had moved all the way across the country when his parents got divorced. It was like their family was split in half. Byron didn't even want to think of what it would be like to live so far away from one of his parents and possibly some of his siblings. It had been hard enough when Mallory had gone away to school in New Hampshire; she wasn't truly his sister anymore, not in the way that she used to be. And even if he moved between two separate households with all of his siblings, that would still leave either one of his parents alone. Try as hard as he might to find one, there really was not a single good thing that could come out of this situation.

When it all came down to it, he felt helpless, and this frustrated him. He couldn't save his parents marriage, he couldn't make things better for his siblings, and he couldn't fix what was invariably going to be a future very different from the one that he had always envisioned. So what could he do? It wasn't really Byron's nature to sit back and passively let things happen, but at this point there didn't seem like anything that he could do or say that would make things any better. Maybe this was one of those situations that was only really healed by time.

Even if that was true, he couldn't let himself believe it. He had to do something to make the situation better, though he did realized that nothing he did would be able to fix it completely. He would start by spending a little time with Nicky, Margo, and Claire. Maybe they could play some sort of game together, or just hang out. Eventually, he wanted to talk to his parents, and let him know that even though he didn't understand their decision, he didn't hate them for it.

He knew that the most important thing to do was what the Pikes had always done anyway: stick together. It was sort of like when his dad lost his job, and all of the kids had tried to earn money to pitch in and help out in any way they could. If they all stuck together, everything would be fine. He just knew it.


	5. Jordan

Jordan lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. The Pike household was in a state of disarray, but he failed to understand why. So his parents were getting separated, big deal. It's not like they had done him any favors lately. In fact, he was sort of glad that they had reveled that they had been living unhappily for awhile. They deserved it, at least a little bit.

His whole life, he had always been known not as Jordan, but one of the Pike kids. More often than not, be had been referred to as 'one of the Pike triplets,' as if people couldn't see past their identical appearances to the three distinct personalities they possessed. To say the least, he was nothing like his brothers.

In fact, he was sort of the odd one out in the whole family. He knew it, and to a point, so did everyone else. Maybe it was because he never really bought into the whole 'let's stick together' attitude that everyone else was so gung-ho about. Maybe it because being happy and family oriented all the time would only cause him to blend in, and being perpetually pissed set him apart. Maybe he was different from the rest of them, but at least he had an identity separate from all of the other Pikes.

He looked over and saw Byron on his bed, looking like he was fighting to hold back the tears. What the hell was his problem? It's not like anyone was divorcing him. Jordan shook his head, he would never understand his brothers, or any of his siblings, really. The only one he had any respect for was Mallory, because she had been smart enough to get out of this house. She had a whole different life at Riverbed independent from the rest of the Pikes. Words could not express how jealous he was of her. He would almost hate her, but he had plans to do the exact same thing.

Everyone thought that he loved sports just for the thrill of the game, like Adam and Byron, but it didn't quite work like that. First of all, he needed them to get out his aggression. Second, he needed them to plain get out. He was on track to be voted captain of two different varsity sports next year, which would basically ensure him a sports scholarship to one of schools in the University of Connecticut systems. He planned to go to whichever schools Adam and Byron weren't looking at. Then he would start his new life, independent from his family and Stoneybrook in general.

Jordan reflected a bit. It's not like he was heartless or anything. For the most part, he got along okay with his siblings. He was the closest to Vanessa, which often surprised people, who, as usual, expected the triplets to be each others best friends. Seriously though, Vanessa was pretty cool. Most people saw her as moody, but he knew that she was smart and sarcastic, which generally made conversations with her interesting. She was the only one who knew his true feelings about a lot of things. Likewise, he knew some things about her that their parents would hardly approve of. Vanessa wasn't quite dutiful daughter that everyone though that she was. He smiled to himself, thinking of the time that they had run into Mrs. Kishi in the library, where they had been hiding in the archive section doing their homework, and drinking rum and coke. After she left, they laughed for about ten minutes straight, before wrecking havoc on the alphabetized card catalogue. Yes, he would keep in touch with Vanessa.

Jordan's thoughts turned again to his parents, and what they had just announced. For just a moment his heart went out to them; after all they, weren't totally horrible. At the same time, what else did they expect would happen twenty-ish years and eight kids later? It's not like they had gone out of their way to make things easy for themselves. He hated how his mom always played the role of the frickin' martyr, always talking about everything that she sacrificed for the kids. Like he never sacrificed anything? He barely had an identity as a direct result of being born into this family, and that wasn't even his choice.

He wondered if they were going to do some sort of joint custody thing, and if so, if they kids would all move back and forth together. If they went half and half, he might finally get some privacy, as well as some time _away_ from Adam and Byron. He saw them enough at school and practice anyway. Also, that would totally make it easier to get around rules and curfews. Not that he ever paid much attention to the guidelines set forth by his parents anyways. Their were too many kids around for them to pay as much attention as they should; as long as he kept decent grades, and played all of his sports they didn't really ask him any questions.

Jordan looked outside, and saw Adam sitting next to the remains of their old fort. Byron had left the room, taking Nicky with him, most likely to play good son and make their parents love him that much more. Though identical, they couldn't handle their emotions any differently. Byron forgot his own feelings, and just did whatever he could to help someone else, never thinking of himself. Adam got mad, and pulverized whatever was in his path until he exhausted his emotions. Jordan though that was kind of cool. That is what he would do, anyway, if he had the energy to care.

Jordan was more of the apathetic type. He had always been that way, really. He had learned from an early age that caring too much only led to being let down, and other feelings that he tried to avoid. This situation had only reinforced that belief. If he actually cared about their happy little family, this would have come as a huge shock and disappointment. But he didn't care, not hardly at all. This was just another day to him. Really.


	6. Vanessa

Vanessa sat on her bed, writing in her journal. When she was sad, she wrote in her journal. When she was happy, she wrote in her journal. When she was mad, anxious, or excited, she wrote in her journal. And now, when her parents told her, along with her siblings, that they would be getting a divorce, she wrote in her journal. It was just too bad that writing didn't really do anything besides fill up the pages of dozens of notebooks.

She hadn't talked to anyone in the hours since her parents had called them all together to break the news. She didn't really have anything to say, to her parents especially. So she wrote out her feelings instead. She had never really been that talkative anyway, unless you count the year when she was nine and spoke incessantly in rhyme. She didn't.

She used to talk to Mallory about things like this, until Mallory had decided that she was too good for the rest of their family. Vanessa bought her first journal the year that her sister went away to boarding school in New Hampshire. For a long time she had been close to Haley Braddock, which had been great, until they had both turned fifteen, and Haley had changed her hairstyle, and instantly attracted the attention of all the guys at Stoneybrook High School. Now she was too good for Vanessa. Rebuffed, she had turned to her journal. That was constant, at least.

There were some advantages to being the quiet one anyway. As long as she kept her grades up, and brought home some of the newspaper articles that she had written for the school newspaper, her parents didn't bother her. This gave her space to sit back, observe, and write. She wrote mostly for herself, but sometimes she shared her thoughts and observations with Jordan. She was the closest to Jordan out of all of her siblings. They both felt as if they had been somehow cheated by life and their parents, but for different reasons. Jordan was simply mad at the world, while she instead felt like the world was mad at her.

But even though she had spent the last year of her life silently observing what was going on around her, she hadn't seen her parent's announcement coming at all. To be honest, she hadn't really been paying that much attention. She had mostly been wrapped up in herself, and her own despairing thoughts, but who really thinks about their parent's relationship? They hadn't seemed to act any different then normal lately. Maybe it was one of those gradual things, that happens so slowly that no one notices it until it is pointed out to them. Of course, by then it is always too late.

She really did feel bad for her parents, especially if either of them had been living lives that they didn't really want to a significant amount of time. That's how she felt anyway, and it wasn't a feeling that she would wish upon anyone else. She had tried so many things to feel happy again, but none of them had really worked. Not ignoring everyone, not pretending happiness, and not rebelling. So she wrote.

Vanessa sighed. She wondered if maybe all her siblings felt like this, to an extent. It wasn't hard to feel perpetually lost in the shuffle in such a big family. Despite all of the nonsense about 'sticking together' that their parents had always talked about, they were really more like ten separate people living together than one happy family. The cohesive unit that they had once mad up had unofficially disbanded about six years ago. When Vanessa thought about it like that, her parent's announcement kind of made sense. After all, if the family couldn't stick together, she could hardly expect her parents to.

Vanessa wrote this down, as well as everything else that was in her head. Sometimes she felt that she had so much inside of her that it would be impossible to get it all down before she forgot it. Her hand never quite seemed to be able to catch up to her head, anyway. She wasn't even sure why she was so compelled to write everything down. It just felt that if she didn't get the words out of her head and onto the papers, she would explode. And what could a person really do with a choice like that?

Suddenly Vanessa heard laughter, which seemed so out of place, given the current situation. She looked outside the window and saw that Byron, Nicky, and Claire were playing some sort of game of catch in the backyard. Margo sat next to Adam under to oak tree watching them, wringing her hands together nervously. Adam wasn't watching so much as looking past them, his gaze fixated on something that she could not see. He had his hands tightly bound into fists. Mallory lay on the bed next to her where she had softly cried herself to sleep.

She had no idea where Jordan was. She wondered what he was thinking though; this was exactly the type of thing that would set him off. Maybe the two of them could take the vodka she had hidden under bed down to the elementary school playground later that night. That would help take the edge of these feelings, to an extent at least. It wouldn't make her feel that much better in the long run, she knew, but it usually helped for the two of them to be alone, together.

Vanessa looked down at the notebook that she was holding. She had written eight pages so far today. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or simply pathetic. She didn't feel as mad as she had initially though, so she must have done something right. At this point she felt empty, which didn't alarm her as it once did. It was how she felt most of the time anyway.

If this divorce would truly make her parents happier, she supported it. Maybe one day she would be brave enough to do the same sort of thing for herself.


	7. Nicky

Nicky Pike sat outside on the steps of the back porch. It was slowly getting dark out, and it was a little cooler than usual for an October night in Connecticut. This had brought his siblings inside, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He needed this time alone to really process the events of the day. How could his parents be getting a divorce? The Pike family was not the divorce type. At least, he had never thought it was.

When he was younger, he would get into fights with the triplets all the time. He had always wanted to do whatever they were doing. And being two years older, they often didn't want him tagging along. Whenever he would talk to his parents or Mallory about this, they would always reassure him that no matter how the triplets treated him, they would always be his brothers, and they would always care about him. Since then, this had remained at the back of Nicky's mind, and it had comforted him. He wondered if this was at any way applicable to the situation he was currently dealing with. Sure his parents would always be his parents, and they would always love him, but they would never again be his parents _together._ Believe it or not, that made a big difference. At least to him, anyway.

Sometimes he feels embarrassed when he thinks about his younger self always tagging along after his older brothers. Back then all he wanted was to be like them. He still did, to a point. The three of them were all athletic, smart, and popular. He was benched during the basketball season, and he had to have a tutor for practically every subject just to make it through. He was anything but popular. The only person he could call a close friend was Jackie Rodowsky, and that was because he was in the same sort of situation, only he had only one older brother to be compared to.

It could be worse though. Sure, Adam and Jordan never really paid that much attention to him, but at least they left him alone. Besides, he knew that Byron would always be there for him. Byron was his hero, and everything that he wanted to be when he grew older. He never said any of this out loud, but he was sure that Byron knew what he was thinking. Byron always knows what he is thinking, and does whatever he can to help him out. No one could ask for a better brother.

His sisters were pretty cool too. Mallory was never really home because she went to school in New Hampshire, but she was fun to hang out with when she came home on breaks. He was the closet to Claire out of all of the girls. They were both trying to live up to the expectations that everyone had for them based on their older siblings. He couldn't count the number of times that teachers had returned homework to him, shook their heads, and told him that they expected more. Or how many coaches had asked if he was really related to Adam, Byron, and Jordan. He supposed that Claire had it worse, though, being the youngest. Maybe that was why she was always so discouraged all the time. He was glad that he didn't have to be the Pike kid next in line after Margo, the all time overachiever. If there was anything that needed to be done, she did it, and she did it better than you could ever do it yourself. She was so methodological that it was almost scary sometimes.

Even though his siblings were all a little weird sometimes, and his family one of the biggest and loudest in town, Nicky still couldn't imagine things any other way. Buddy Barrett's parents were divorced, and Buddy hadn't even seen his dad in the last five years. He didn't want to even think about anything like that happening to his family. The Pikes were supposed to stick together, and make it through anything. That is what his parents had always told him. Maybe this was one of those times where the adults didn't exactly pay attention to the things that they had been saying all along, and the kids were just supposed to go along with it. He hated that.

It was almost completely dark now, so he decided to head inside. He passed by the younger girls room; Margo was at her desk working intently on her homework, as usual, while Claire was holding her teddy bear, Ba-ba, and rocking back and forth. He wanted to go inside and act like an older brother, but he really didn't know what to say to them. Truthfully, he was a little scared of Margo; she had a tendency to snap if things didn't go exactly the way that she had planned. That was more Byron's thing, anyway.

Opening the door to the room that he shared with his brothers, he was very surprised to find it empty. Privacy was a rare thing in the Pike household. Normally, this was something that he really appreciated. Tonight, however, he wanted to be anything but alone. He sort of wanted to talk to his parents. He just wanted to hear them say again that they would make it through this, and that though things would certainly be different, they would be okay. Even though they had said that any of the kids could come talk to them if they needed, the door to their bedroom was closed, and he could hear them arguing behind it. Needless to say, he didn't really want to interrupt.

Today could easily be pinpointed as one of the most confusing of his life. And though he knew that whenever his parents announced something, especially of this magnitude, they went through with it, he made a silent wish to himself that tomorrow everything would somehow get back to normal.


	8. Margo

It was Saturday night, and Margo Pike sat at her desk, doing her homework. There was certainly nothing unusual about that. She did her homework every night, regardless of what else was going on in her life. After all, there was no reason to let her grades fall over something stupid, be it a television show that she liked, or the fact that her parents had just announced that they would be getting a divorce.

Sometimes her siblings teased her about the fact that she was always studying for something, but that was because they didn't understand her world. For some people, it was okay to do the work that was assigned, and then move on. Margo, however, must do what was assigned perfectly, and then do more. She must always remain one step ahead, and she must always exceed the expectations of her teachers. This shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone; she had always been finicky about her food, now she was finicky about her grades. Byron sometimes told her that she took school too seriously. As if that were possible. Eighth grade needed to be mastered in order to prepare her for high school, which would in turn prepare her for college, which would lay the foundation for the rest of her life. How could she not take that seriously?

The announcement that her parents had made that morning of their impending divorce had not fully registered with her. She had heard the announcement, begun to process it, but had then blocked it out in order to focus on her studies. She would expound on the situation later, but for the now she did not have the time. After all, she was in the middle of an essay on symbolism in _The Scarlet Letter._

It wasn't as if she didn't care about her family, and the fact that it was being split apart. Because she did, even in ways that she had not begun to let herself realize yet. It was situations like this, actually, that drove her to scholastic achievement in the first place. The real world was harsh and unpredictable: she never would have guessed that her parents were even thinking about a divorce. School, and everything that came along with it, however, was both predictable and safe. As long as she studied and did the work assigned, she prospered. There was no variation to take into account. In fact, when the real world and life in general proved to be troublesome, as it often did, she sought solace in her schoolwork. The unfailing predictability of the homework process comforted her in ways that her friends and family could not. There was a part of her that realized that this was not healthy, but she blocked this out, as she often did with things that she didn't want to deal with.

Margo looked up from her notebook at a second, and saw that Claire was laying on her bed, holding her teddy bear, Ba-ba. She smiled for a second when she thought of how close she and Claire were when they were younger. They used to do everything together. Now, it seems like they have hardly anything in common. Claire wasn't interested in school the way that Margo was; she could just barely be considered a mediocre student. And while Margo didn't have any friends that she truly hung out with, only ones that she studied with occasionally, Claire had more than she knew what to do with. Though they were only in sixth grade, it was clear that Claire, along with her best friend Nina Marshall, were destined to be popular. She and Claire were alike, however, in the fact that neither one of them felt all that happy nor secure. They never discussed this of course, but at least one of them cried themselves to sleep every night. She really hoped that someday she and Claire would regain the closeness that they had once shared. Until then, it seemed that they were destined to tiptoe around each other.

Margo wondered for a little while what the rest of her siblings were doing, and if they had been at all troubled by the mornings announcement. A part of her wanted to seek them out, but of course she didn't. She really only spend time with them when Byron forced her to step away from her books and leave her world. And while she usually enjoyed herself during these times, there was always the nagging thought of all she had to do in the back of her mind, never letting her completely forget her obligations.

Margo wondered briefly if her parents had been planning this for a long time, or if it was something that came up suddenly. She had always thought that her parents were so in love. Maybe this was one of those things that they had been hiding from themselves. Sometimes she had to hide things from herself. She didn't like doing this, but sometimes if she didn't she knew she wouldn't be able to function. She knew that this wasn't the best thing to do, but saw it as the only way to accomplish everything that she wanted out of life. Every once in awhile her mom would comment on how hard Margo was on her self, and offer to set up an appointment for her with the same therapist that Claire saw. Margo had yet to take her up on the offer. That was something that she knew she was not ready for. She wasn't brave enough to deal with everything that she had pushed aside over the course of her short lifetime. Sometimes she didn't think that she would ever be.

Realizing her thoughts, Margo quickly turned her attention back to her homework and the subject matter at hand. It hurt too much to think about what had been announced today, as well as everything else that was going on in her life. So she didn't.


	9. Claire

Claire lay on her bed in the room that she shared with her sister. She had been laying there for a long time. Eventually, Margo had assumed that she was sleeping, and had left to work on her homework elsewhere in the house. This is what she had wanted. Now she was alone, except for Ba-ba, her teddy bear that she had had almost her whole life.

She was really sad about everything that her mom and dad had announced that morning, but more sad that no one wanted to talk to her about it. Mallory and Vanessa were in their room hadn't opened the door when she knocked on it. Adam and Jordan yelled at her to get away from them. And while Byron had played outside with her and Nicky, he didn't know the answers to any of the questions that she had asked him. But maybe that wasn't his fault. Margo used to talk to her about everything, until she started to be really good at school. Now she just did her homework all the time. Claire didn't like homework, but she liked school itself because she had a lot of friends, and everyone wanted her to pay attention to them. It was the exact opposite of being at home with her family.

Even though she wasn't very good at school, she would rather be there than at home. She wasn't good at anything the way that her brothers and sisters were. Mallory and Vanessa were good writers, the triplets were good at any sport, and Margo was good at everything that she tried. Nicky was her favorite brother because he wasn't really that good at anything either. That's why they liked to spend time with each other. All of her other siblings ignored her, except for Byron, who still played with her and Nicky sometimes.

Sometimes she got really worried that her parents didn't like her as much as everyone else because she wasn't special. When she thought about that, she got really, really sad. Her mom was the only one who noticed this, and that was why she had made her go see Dr. Reese. It helped to talk to someone about everything that was inside her head. Ellen helped her understand her feelings. When she had first started going, she heard her parents fighting. Her dad didn't think that she should go, because he thought it would only make her feel set apart from the other kids. She loved her Daggles, but he was a silly-billy-goo-goo who didn't really know anything about what was going on with their family. Maybe that was why he was divorcing them all.

Claire wanted to know if she would live with her mom or dad now, and if she would stay with the rest of her brothers and sisters. Inside she hoped that maybe they would be split up a little bit. Sometimes it was way too hard to live with so many brothers and sisters. Maybe she could live with her mom, Byron, and Nicky. That would be perfect. Deep inside she thought that maybe she would like Mallory, Vanessa, Adam, Jordan, and Margo a lot better if they didn't live together all the time. Living together made it easier for her parents to compare them to each other. And Claire never came out ahead when that happened.

Claire heard Margo walk into their room and settle herself into bed. She pretended that she was asleep so that Margo wouldn't talk to her. Not that she ever really talked to her anyway. After a few minutes, Margo started crying softly. She did that almost every night. Claire didn't really understand why. She cried herself to sleep a lot, but that was good because she wasn't really good at anything. Margo was good at everything; She received the best grades in the entire school, all the teachers loved her, and her parents were always proud of her for winning awards. Their parents were nice to Claire, and they loved her, but they weren't proud of her. She knew that there was a difference.

Claire looked at the clock next to her bed. It was past eleven. She was glad that she didn't have school the next day, because otherwise she would be really tired. Sometimes she had a really hard time sleeping, so she went downstairs and played quietly by herself until she could fall asleep. Her parents never said anything about this, because they didn't believe in bed times. Dr. Reese said that her parents had a hard time setting boundaries, and that is why she didn't feel secure with herself or her place in the family. Claire wasn't sure if that was true or not.

Ever since her parents had told all of the children that they were separating, Claire had been thinking really hard and trying to figure out why. They didn't fight very often, and her dad sometimes even surprised her mom with flowers for no reason. She thought that maybe they were just tired of having to deal with kids all the time. Being the youngest, Claire had no doubt that eight kids was too many; it was way too easy to get lost in the shuffle. She wondered if maybe her parents had so many kids that they sometimes got lost in the shuffle. She hoped not. It was awfully lonely to be lost, and she didn't want them to feel that way.

Claire looked over at her sister. Margo had stopped crying, and was breathing slowly. Claire knew that she was finally asleep. She hoped that Margo didn't worry about everything in her dreams, the way she did during the day. Sometimes she did that. Dr. Reese said that was part of the reason that she had trouble sleeping. Claire held onto Ba-ba tighter, and worked herself deeper under the covers. She knew that sleep would come, eventually, weather she liked it or not.


	10. Epilogue

Only three days had passed since Dee and John Pike had told their eight children that they intended to end their marriage, thought it felt like much longer. The air in their house somewhat felt different; somehow the whole atmosphere had changed. The children had picked up on this as well, and were all acting accordingly. Everyone was making an extra effort to be polite and cordial to each other, but the hurting they all felt was very apparent in almost every action made.

Dee and John devoted much discussion to this. They had in fact talked more in the week since making this decision than in the last years. They discussed the children, of course, and their reactions the announcement. But they also discussed each other. They talked in depth about who they were to each other, and who they would be apart from this relationship. These truly heartfelt conversations had served to give each of them glimpses of the relationship they had once been involved in that both saddened them, and made them smile. Regardless, they both knew they were making the right decision, despite many hesitations and misgivings.

The hope of a happier future gave each of them the strength they needed to go through with this in the presence of their children's obvious opposition. Mallory had hardly said a word on the drive back to Riverbend, but she had given Dee a smile and hug when she was dropped off. Adam walked around in a cloud of anger, Jordan in one of dismissal. Byron tried his best to help out, but they could tell he was hurting more than he wanted to let on. Vanessa locked herself in her room, Nicky trailed after Byron, Margo threw herself into her school work, and Claire was more withdrawn and despondent than usual. In all honestly, these were the type of reactions that Dee and John had anticipated; they knew their children well. They just hadn't thought or imagined that it would hurt so much to watch.

To avoid the feelings that were bombarding them, they focused much attention on logistics. John would be moving out into a small apartment. It would only have two bedrooms, so they figured that the kids would take turns visiting for awhile. The children would, of course, reside primarily with their mother. It really hadn't been a question, though John loved the children dearly.

They had had a family lunch before Mallory had returned to school on Sunday. Dee and John had tried to be casual about it. It had nearly worked, and they almost had everyone participating in a conversation until Claire had burst into tears, announcing that she had just realized that it was the last time that they would all be together as a family. Dee had rushed to comfort her, but she knew that it would likely be the truth. Though she and John intended remain in good esteem after the final divorce proceedings, she didn't think that they would go out of their way to spend time together, even for the sake of the children. As much as they wanted to help them through this in every way possible, some things would just hurt too much.

Dee and John had encouraged all of the children to come and talk to them if they had any questions or concerns. None of the children had done this, choosing instead to ignore them and their support. It concerned them both that none of the children had come to them, even with the open invitation. However, these same guidelines had been expressed prior to any of this, and it was rare when someone came to them seeking advice or guidance. They attributed this to the children being teenagers and wanting to figure things out for themselves, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Dee took this to heart, and silently resolved to take each of the kids aside individually at one point soon to give them an opportunity to voice their concerns. On the other hand, John was rather relieved that no one had sought him out, though this only reinforced his feelings of inadequacy as a father.

Knowing that this was the last night they would spend together under the same roof, Dee and John spent it locked together in their room, pouring over the numerous family albums that had been put together over the years. They frequently became separately lost in the memories that they had created, and would come back, smile at each other, and move on. They stayed up until almost dawn expounding as to what the future held for Mallory, Adam, Byron, Jordan, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire respectively. Time and time again, they told each other that their family would defy the odds and come out of this process unscathed, minus a few battle scars. This would be a new sort of sticking together, but the Pike's had always been able to adapt fairly easily. This is what they hoped for, anyway. The reality of the situation may not be as neat and clean as they desired it to be.

The love between Dee and John Pike had never been a secret. And what had become a lack of love had never really been a secret either. However, through everything, the love that Dee and John Pike had for the family that they created would be apparent. Despite whatever feelings came and went between them, the love for their children would forever bond Dee and John in ways that they would never really be able to put into words. It was because of the children that they would never look back and see their marriage as wasted years, and also because of the children that they would always have hope for the future. And though it was hard to see and admit this through the hurt that they were feeling, even the children knew this.

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**Author's Note: **I hope that everyone has enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Much thanks goes out to everyone who has submitted a review, as I appreciate it more than you can know. Please feel free to check out my other stories, and know that there will be more to come!

Chelz22


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